Response processing during visual search in normal aging: the need for longer time to prevent cross talk between spatial attention and manual response selection
-
1
University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain
-
2
University of A Coruña, Spain
Behavioral slowing is a ubiquitous finding in aging research. However, its causes are still not well known. In the present report response-related electrocortical activity obtained during the execution of a visual search task was analyzed. EEG was recorded from 13 young and 17 older healthy participants required to detect the presence of a target stimulus that differed from distracters in a salient feature (orientation). The effects of normal aging were examined on the N2cc component, an electrophysiological correlate of sensory-motor mapping in dorsal premotor cortex to prevent the direction of attention determining response selection, and on two motor components of the Readiness Potential (RP) related to response preparation and execution, the Motor Potential (MP) and the Reafferent Potential (RAP) respectively. Older participants showed N2cc longer latencies, earlier MP onsets and longer MP rise times. Moreover, aging was associated to higher MP and lower RAP amplitudes. Taken together, these results complement previous findings on N2pc revealing a specific impairment of the allocation of visuospatial attention with advancing age and suggest that during visual search older participants need more time to prevent interference between the direction of attention and response selection, and that they are slower and need higher cortical activation when preparing their correctly selected responses. The results also appear to indicate the existence of age-related deficient sensory-motor integration. Funding: Grant PSI2010-21427 from the Spanish 'Ministerio de Investigación, Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN)'.
Keywords:
Aging,
EEG
Conference:
XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI), Palma, Mallorca, Spain, 25 Sep - 29 Sep, 2011.
Presentation Type:
Symposium: Oral Presentation
Topic:
Poster Sessions: Cognitive Aging
Citation:
Amenedo
E,
Lorenzo-López
L and
Pazo-Álvarez
P
(2011). Response processing during visual search in normal aging: the need for longer time to prevent cross talk between spatial attention and manual response selection.
Conference Abstract:
XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI).
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2011.207.00613
Copyright:
The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers.
They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters.
The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated.
Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed.
For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions.
Received:
15 Nov 2011;
Published Online:
28 Nov 2011.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Elena Amenedo, University of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain, elena.amenedo@usc.es